Past Life Hero, ch 27

On Saturday morning, Max walked on the road to the central area with Lance and Wiley.

It wasn't early, and it wasn't late. About halfway between breakfast and lunch. He had expected more people to be heading to the central area, but there were only two other groups that he had seen. One was a group of upperclassmen girls, and the second was a large mixed group armed to the teeth that Max was very confused by until he remembered what he had heard about students raiding dungeons.

In fact, after remembering dungeons, he realized that the group seemed to have an attitude like they were on a mission. Max counted them and came to nine. He shook his head. The dungeons must be insanely dangerous because even with nine people, the group seemed nervous.  Of course he had nothing to really base this on right now other than his forays into the ruins and catacombs of Albion.

"So where do you two want to go first?" said Wiley. The man was all smiles. Max knew that Lance really liked Wiley, so he was trying to give the other man a chance, but there was just something about him that he didn't quite like. Maybe it was because he didn't seem to take anything seriously. Max liked to joke around as much as the next person, but he always tried to remind himself of the stakes at hand and why he was at Summoner Academy in the first place. Maybe after three or four years, Wiley had just let the memories dull or something.  Now Max was making an effort, trying to give the other man a chance.

Lance said, "Well, we all ate breakfast, so I don't think food is really high on the priority list right now. I also don't really have any money unless Max wants to loan me some after selling his dagger.”  He winked and Max rolled his eyes.

"I don't even know for sure that I'm selling this thing yet, so let's cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Fair enough, fair enough," said Lance, holding his hands out. "Relax, Guy."

"Oh my god," said Max.  “That was a South Park reference, wasn’t it?  I didn’t know floppy headed Canadians like you even watched South Park.”

“Of course.  We all watch Terrance and Phillip too.  Duh.”

The two of them chuckled while while Wiley looked visibly confused.

When the mirth faded, Wiley said, "Okay, how about this? We can go to some of the regular clothing stores first and then hit up some of the stores that sell adventurer clothing after that. And then go to the weapon shop area, and after that, we can get lunch. Does that work for you guys?"

"Works for me, yeah," said Max.

"Me too," said Lance.

Walking on this path now as a group of three was a very different experience than the first time Max had gone to the central area. Of course, it could also be because this was a weekend, and there were other people going as well, but it didn't have quite the same alien feel to it as before. In fact, Max had already seen the central area now.  Now he was more interested in individual businesses than the overall look of the place.  He was also paying closer attention to the other people he saw.

There were several adventuring groups visible.  The adventurer group coming out of the Summoner Academy apparently hadn't been the only one. There was another group he spotted armed and armored getting donuts and coffee at a nearby shop.

“I never even got a chance to look around the mall last time,” said Lance.

Wiley said, “Take my word for it, don't even bother going to the mall until you have lots of money and maybe protection too. That's where a lot of the movers and shakers hang out."

Lance frowned. "Wow. This is like high school all over again.  But maybe less savage."

"Tell me about it," said Max. The three of them chatted as they walked across the central area with Wiley answering questions and giving more information.

The subject of duels and fighting came up again, and Max said, "So the only experience I have is with a duel where both sides basically stated what was at stake.  I thought it was the case, but Wiley, you’re confirming that if somebody attacks you, the system knows it, and if you defend yourself, you can actually get rewards?"

"Yeah," said Wiley. "It's one of the ways that the Quartet system prevents too much violence or murder because there's always the chance that the prey will become the predator. If you kill somebody in self-defense, you get to take everything that they were wearing, but you don't quite get all of their money. At least not necessarily. Most people have money pouches that they carry their money in, and if the amount is over 2000 units, the system usually awards you with half of what that person was carrying on top of that."

"How the hell does it know that?" asked Lance. "Actually never mind.  But also, if people can lose their money that way, and especially if they're the angsty sort, why would they carry money on them in the first place?"

Wiley shook his head and grinned, "This conversation really brings me back. You have no idea how long it took me in my first year to put all this stuff together.  So basically, nobody usually really leaves expensive stuff in their rooms unattended. The reason is if you're on the inside and you lock the door, your room is pretty well protected, but once you leave your room, the lock sucks. In fact, a lot of rooms don't even have locks. You can buy better locks, but most students can't afford them or don't want to spend money on it.

“Students can leave weapons and armor in the academy armories, but they have limited slots.

“So unless somebody is really rich, rich enough to leave all of their stuff in their room because it has magical protection, a lot of people carry their money and most expensive stuff on them all the time, since that's the safest way to do it. If you actually die or get murdered or anything like that, anything that the system doesn't believe the other person should receive appears with you in the field once you come back to life."

“You mean respawn?” asked Lance.

“Huh?” asked Wiley.

Max said, "Video game term."

"What's a video game?"

For the next few minutes Max and Lance tried to explain video games to Wiley, who came from a lower technology world. By the time they all reached their first destination, a clothing store for men, Wiley was still confused and seemed only half sure that they'd been telling the truth.

After that, the three of them split up, and Max browsed, mainly looking at prices. He'd been bracing himself for things probably being expensive but was still unprepared for the reality. Shoes seemed to go anywhere from three units, all the way up to four hundred. A pair of flip-flops or sandals could be had for only one credit, but everything else was expensive. Shirts were the same way. A pack of undershirts was two credits, but a single nice silk shirt seemed to be about twenty credits, give or take five.

What was also interesting was he was pretty sure nothing in this store was even enchanted.

As he searched, he ran into Lance, who was looking at shorts. Lance pointed at a pair he had been checking out. The price read six credits. Lance said, "You know, the prices aren't actually that bad when you consider that one credit gets you a meal. The problem is that unless you make money somewhere else or find it, the amount of money you get just from existing in the academy is like almost nothing.  The problem seems to be more that we’re poor than the prices are too high."

Max considered what his friend had just said and slowly nodded, "Yeah, I can see your point. But if that's the case, some of those boots are still really expensive. Like, I'm not going to do the math in my head, but they'd probably be one or two thousand dollars back home, maybe more."

"Maybe they're really good boots," said Lance, and he shrugged.  “There are shoes back home that people buy for that much.  Normal people don’t, but they exist.”

Max left Lance to go check out more stuff by himself, and about ten minutes later, their group of three left the store to try another. Over the next hour, Max, Lance, and Wiley went window shopping in multiple stores. Max usually hated window shopping, but this was fascinating.  At first.

After the first stores, Max had started paying less attention. Back on Earth, he'd cared about his appearance, but only to the extent that somebody who was poor actually could. And on top of that, he knew from his past life that nothing made an outfit look better than power. The only difference between “shabby” or “weird” versus “eccentric” or “style setter” was often someone’s perceived value. Back on Earth and right now, Max didn't have a whole lot of power.  For right now, serviceable clothing would do.

But even that was super expensive in the Quartet.  He needed money.

Lance was definitely in his element, though. Apparently, back on Earth, he'd had a pretty decent wardrobe and had a reputation for dressing sharp. Lance was of the opinion that in the clothing stores in the central area, there were outfits at least as good as back on Earth, but some actually even better. Max was glad that his friend had found something he was excited about to save up for.

He was glad to move on from the clothing stores when they did.  And Max's attention was piqued again when the three of them walked into an armor store for the first time. This store was called Burt's Emporium and was fairly large. There were cuirasses and brigandines held up by metal hangers all along the store and in racks, but there were also glass cases with sets of armor or more expensive-looking pieces of armor as well. There was a sign next to most of them saying that custom fitting was complementary with any purchase over one thousand units.

At first, Max thought that amount might be a lot until he saw the price tag of one suit of armor in a lighted case. He pursed his lips in surprise when he read thirteen thousand units, but then he started reading a little note card under the price about the armor itself, and he decided that maybe the price was fair for everything it could do.

Even back on Albion, this suit of armor would have been fairly expensive. It had three different enchantments, one of them being a self-repair function, which was absolutely a godsend for anybody working as a soldier or an adventurer. Without armor that had an enchanted repair function, a fighter would either need a squire or they would need to pack armor repair components themselves, which added weight to their pack and also took up space. Not to mention it took time to fix things, time that a warrior might not have.  An auto repair function could save their life as much as any other enchantment.

Max had half been expecting a grumpy dwarf to be manning the store, but instead, there was a young-looking guy with pimples cleaning his nails with a file and reading a book. He didn't even glance up at them as they browsed. Max got closer to Wiley and whispered, "Why isn't the employee paying more attention? Isn't shoplifting a thing here?"

Wiley chuckled softly and said, "No. Most stores like this have theft prevention devices on the merchandise that have to be turned off at the counter. If you try to take something out the door," he made a motion with his finger across his throat. "It's not pleasant."

"I see," said Max.  Must be nice for the stores, he thought.  He glanced at the unenthused employee again.  And the staff.

Max got a pretty good feel for what sort of armor was available, at least in that shop, and the next two armor shops clinched what sort of gear he might be able to obtain in the central area if he had enough money.

Next, the three of them went to stores with weapons, and Max was even more interested in these stores. Like in the armor stores, the weapons ranged from plain and relatively affordable all the way up to absolutely crazy expensive. Max even saw a sword in one store that was priced for more than a million credits, but after reading the description, he could only shake his head in amazement. It was a better weapon than anything he'd ever seen on Albion including his personal sword that he'd carried for fifty years before he'd been killed.

Moon Etcher, he thought.  I wonder what ever happened to my sword?

The three left the area with most of the weapons stores–there had been at least a dozen of them–and Wiley asked, "Do you guys want to start heading towards the area with restaurants? All that stuff is by the mall and extends to the middle."

"Yeah, sure," said Lance, but Max was looking around, his head on a swivel.

Max pointed and said, "Can we check that place out really quick?"

Wiley glanced over and frowned but shrugged. "Sure, I don't think it's very interesting, but whatever floats your boat."

"Oh, that's cool. You have that saying on your world too," said Lance.

Wiley laughed, and the two of them began talking about different figures of speech on their different worlds.

Apparently, the store that had caught Max’s eye was an adventurer general store.  The name of the store was Burt's General Store. The "Burt" in the name had been what caught Max’s attention.

Max walked around the store, and his heart began to speed up with excitement.  He saw packs, rope, magic torches, water purification devices, even magically compressed rations.  This store had everything that an adventurer would need other than armor and weapons to attack a dungeon, which Max had been learning about a little bit more during his walk with Wiley.

Back on Albion, dungeons had existed in the distant past before Max was born, but most of them had disappeared. He'd only actually seen two in his lifetime, and only ever been in one.

Listening to Wiley, he was surprised to find out that the dungeons that students could raid from this Quartet were very similar to the dungeons he’d heard about on his home world.  He'd been even more interested to find out that all the dungeons accessed from this Quartet existed on one world.  Students transported to it from the central area.

Max left the store and saw his two companions still chatting nearby and crossed the street to see another business that had caught his attention.  This one was called Burt's Books.

Over the last few days, whenever Max had had time to visit the library, he'd been disappointed with his limited access.  He was curious if somebody could get a hold of higher level or more interesting books than he could now at the library if they had money.

After walking around the store, he decided the answer was definitely yes.

In fact, this store had incredibly ancient-looking tomes behind glass, similar to the displays that the armor and weapons shop had sported for their higher-end items.

The attendant in this store seemed to be paying better attention than the employees in some of the other stores he'd been in.  The employee was an older man wearing a bowler hat. Iin a firm but gentle voice, said, "Please, no reading in the store other than a quick flip through or to check out the front or back page. This is a bookstore, not a library."

Max nodded. "That's fair."  On earth a lot of people would have been offended, but some of these books were likely hand made or even one-of-a-kind.  He put the book back that he'd been starting to flip through, a primer on general sorcery paths.  "I have got to get more money," he said out loud.

The man behind the counter smiled and said, "Isn't that the truth for all of us?"

Max walked out of the bookstore, deep in thought. His to-do lists while at the Summoner Academy had just gotten a new bullet point in his mind.

*Make money

He walked over to Lance and Wiley.  "Okay, I'm done here. Sorry for keeping you guys waiting."

"Not a problem," said Wiley. "After all, it's just about to be noon, and I think that's the best time to show you a cool restaurant. It's kind of out of the way, though. You guys mind walking for a little bit more?"

"No, that's fine," said Lance.

Max just absently nodded, thinking about the books he'd seen in Burt's Books. He suddenly wondered if the old man in the bookstore had been Burt himself. Or maybe each store was owned by a different Burt.

He smiled at his own useless thoughts before going over all of the ways he'd heard a student could make money again.

While Max pondered, Lance and Wiley chatted.  Before he knew it, they'd crossed almost the entire central area, going behind the mall, moving further away from the entrance to the Summoner Academy.

Wiley checked the time on his tablet and said, "I think the place just opened. Let's hurry."

Max nodded again and hurried, walking faster.  The three of them moved past some other people down the street. Then Wiley pointed at a sign on the brick wall that said, "Royal Kitchen."

"This is the place."  Next to the sign, there wasn't a doorway, but instead, an alley leading deep between two buildings.  The cobblestones in the alley looked actually nicer than those on the road, but Max frowned regardless. In his past life, he'd had a bad track record regarding alleys.

He hesitated, but Lance was already following Wiley, so Max brought up the rear.  Paranoia or not, he let his hand fall to his dagger and tried not to let memories of the past drown out the present.  One bad thing about remembering a very long previous life is that it seemed like everything he did reminded him of something he'd already done.

After the three of them walked some distance down the alley and took a corner, Max's saw the courtyard in front of a fancy restaurant, seemingly standing all by itself because of the clever alleyway access.

Something suddenly screamed at Max from the back of his mind.  His stomach dropped when he realized that his premonition had been right after all.  Out of the corner of his vision, he saw motion and reacted with finely honed instincts.

He dove forward, rolling on the ground and came up in a crouch, bare dagger out in his hand.  The maneuver had been enough to avoid getting skewered through the legs by a spear.

In half a second, his entire day had turned, becoming something else entirely.  His adrenaline ramped up to max, making his eyeballs buzz.  He took a step to make some distance or run away but hissed instead.  It was no use.  He was boxed in, people blocking his exit.  The must have jumped down from up above somewhere.

This was a very thorough ambush.

Behind him, Lance started screaming bloody murder, and Max spared a quick glance back.

Lance had been stabbed in the thigh and was cradling his injury, gritting his teeth and staring around him in anger and confusion.

Wiley was against one brick wall, arms crossed, face blank.  Now there were people blocking the entrance to the restaurant as well as the exit back to the alley.

Out of the group in front of the restaurant, a man stepped forward with a sneer on his face and a spear in his hand. "So nice of you to join us," said Prince Regal.

Max's nose twitched. He really hated being right all the time.  After this he really needed to start listening to his instincts again.  Earth had made him soft.

***





:)